Digital Commons Network^™

Atypical Responses To Sensory Stimuli Or Eating Environments In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Lydia Rockers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often encounter challenges in processing sensory inputs. Children with ASD may experience feeding difficulties and over- or under- stimulation during food-related activities such as eating or shopping. These have impacts on the health and well-being of individuals with ASD in childhood and throughout their lives. Further research is needed to address the impact of ambient sound levels in a retail or restaurant setting. The main objective of this thesis was to address these gaps by identifying responses to various environmental and food related stimuli. The findings of this research addressed differences in responses between …

Modification Of Time-Domain Terahertz Spectroscopy System To Polarimetry Imaging System With Application To Human Breast Cancer Surgical Specimen, Nikita Gurjar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Breast-conserving therapy (lumpectomy) is one of the most performed breast cancer surgeries in the United States. The best outcome of lumpectomy surgery is achieved when the surgical margins are free of cancer. When remnants of cancer are detected at the surgical margins after the initial operation, a second operation will be required to remove the cancer. Unfortunately, a significant number of patients undergo breast conserving surgery (BCS) at local hospitals that do not have access to immediate on-site pathology leading to high rates of re-excision or reoperation (greater than 30%). Therefore, there is a significant need for new intraoperative technology …

Synthesis Of Nanoparticles And Their Applications In Power Module Packaging And Organic Electronics, Xinsong Zhang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nanoparticles can greatly change the properties of regular materials due to their special structures. In this research nanoparticles, such as silver nanowires, silver nanospheres and expanded graphite, are used in interconnection materials for power module packaging, and in conductive films for organic electronics. Silver nanowires synthesized by polyol synthesis, are used as fillers in micron silver paste. The electrical and mechanical properties of the sintered hybrid silver paste are investigated and compared with those of micron silver paste. The composites of silver nanospheres and expanded graphite are mixed with PEDOT:PSS solutions in 5 different weight ratio. The electrical and optical …

Development Of Iii-V And Iv Epitaxy On Sapphire Technology, Emmanuel Wangila

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research presents comprehensive insights into the epitaxial growth of germanium (Ge) on c-plane sapphire substrates using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The direct growth of Ge on sapphire typically yields three-dimensional (3D) Ge islands with diverse growth directions, multiple primary domains, and twinned crystals. However, incorporating a thin AlAs nucleation layer proves instrumental in enhancing surface and material quality. With a 10 nm AlAs layer, the achieved surface exhibits improved characteristics, including a smoother surface, single epitaxial orientation, sharper rocking curve, and a single domain. This study surpasses previous works by achieving a single primary domain and reducing twinning. Furthermore, …

Intellectual Humility And The Role Of Feedback On Children’S Intellectual Humility Expression, Christina M. Barnes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Intellectual Humility (IH) is the ability to recognize, acknowledge, and act, on the fallibility of one’s own knowledge (Porter et al., 2021). IH is associated with many positive outcomes including intellectual curiosity, tenacity, open-mindedness, and mastery behaviors (Leary, 2018; Porter & Schuman, 2017, Porter et al., 2020) leading some to believe IH is the promotion of IH as the next great educational virtue. Some scholars argue however, that too much IH can lead to Intellectual Servility which is associated with negative outcomes such as maladaptive perfectionism, need for cognitive closure, and less willingness to change a belief when presented with …

Student Perceptions And Academic Performance When Taught With Multiple Active Learning Methods In A High Enrollment Undergraduate Human Physiology Course, Kate Ireton Walker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When instructing very large groups of students in science, it can be difficult to engage all students in the content and measure their understanding. A major unaddressed challenge in science instruction is how specifically to design and implement strategies that engender active learning particularly in high-enrollment undergraduate courses. Active learning, which represents a diverse set of strategies, may include student engagement as part of instruction through discussions, active movement, and application (Bernstein, 2018; Cavanagh, et al. 2016; Michael, 2006 & Wilke, 2003). This study was designed to provide data addressing the gap in the literature regarding how the continual implementation …

Optimization Of And Mechanistic Insights Into Photocatalytic And Non-Thermal Plasma Degradation Of Organic Pollutants For Sustainable Wastewater Treatment, Yiting Xiao

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water pollution by organic pollutants poses a significant environmental threat, necessitating the development of advanced treatment technologies to ensure sustainable and efficient remediation. This dissertation explored innovative approaches to enhance the degradation of organic pollutants through the integration of photocatalytic and plasma-assisted systems, with a focus on optimizing these processes using methodologies ranging from response surface methodology (RSM) to advanced machine learning techniques. The first part of the dissertation investigated the degradation of organic pollutants in flocculated liquid digestate using photocatalytic titanate nanofibers (TNFs) synthesized via a hydrothermal method. This study represents the first application of TNFs, with a bandgap …

Neural Interactions In Bottom-Up Communication, Prashant Chama Raju

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The visual system’s remarkable ability to process vast amounts of sensory information rapidly and accurately is fundamental to cognitive neuroscience. This study investigates a key aspect of this capability: the compartmentalization of information into feature-specific subspaces during bottom-up communication. My primary question was: does Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) reveal a subspace that encodes color and direction of moving dot stimuli? I found that the first canonical component (CC1) does an excellent job decoding the stimuli, despite being one-dimensional while the stimuli were drawn from a two-dimensional space (red-green and up-down plane). I demonstrate that motion features are processed within distinct …

Esd-Robust 4h-Sic Low-Voltage Cmos Technology Development For High Temperature, Hui Wang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the development and optimization of electrostatic discharge (ESD)-robust, low-voltage CMOS technology using 4H-silicon carbide (SiC) tailored for high-temperature applications, addressing the critical need for reliable semiconductor devices in harsh environmental conditions. The advent of SiC as a semiconductor material offers significant advantages over traditional silicon (Si) in harsh environments, including higher thermal conductivity, greater electron mobility, and improved electrical characteristics at elevated temperatures. This research explores the integration of 4H-SiC into CMOS technology to enhance device reliability and performance in extreme conditions such as those found in aerospace, automotive, and energy sectors. The study begins with a …

The Influence Of Commercial Salmonella Vaccination Programs On Local- And Systemic-Immune Responses And Ceca Microbiome In Egg-Type Chickens, Chrysta Noelle Beck

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Salmonella vaccination is a widely accepted practice in the United States poultry industry. These vaccines stimulate a strong humoral response to Salmonella serovars and significantly reduce Salmonella load in the bird. In general, a Salmonella vaccination program for an egg-type pullet flock consists of two administrations of a live attenuated Salmonella vaccine at 1- and 6-wk-of-age followed by one administration of a Salmonella bacterin at 12-wk-of-age. Although these vaccines are regarded as effective against paratyphoid Salmonella infections, there are incidences of breakthrough Salmonella infections and severe injection site reactions after bacterin administration. Therefore, the main objective of this dissertation was …

Tuning Electronic Transport And Magnetic Properties Of Layered Magnetic Materials, Md Rafique Un Nabi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two-dimensional magnetic materials (2DMMs) have gained significant interest due to their potential for novel physical phenomena and device applications. Mn_2-xZn_xSb, with its tunable magnetic properties and stable tetragonal layered structure, offers a rich platform for exploring these phenomena. The introduction of Zn into the Mn₂Sb lattice efficiently tunes magnetic and electronic properties, making it a compelling candidate for high-performance spintronic devices.

With this motivation, we synthesized Mn_2-xZn_xSb (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) single crystals using a flux method. Mn2Sb exhibits ferrimagnetic order below 550 K with antiparallel spins aligned along …

Students' And Teachers' Perceptions Of Play On Students' Classroom Behavior, Melissa Bradt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Play is an integral part of human nature. Research has demonstrated that play supports physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development in children and even adults. However, according to the American Association for the Child’s Right to Play (2024), 40% of school districts in the U.S. have eliminated or reduced recess in order to promote academic excellence as measured by standardized tests. How does the reduction in play time influence students’ classroom behavior? An examination of this question has tremendous theoretical and societal impact as it informs the influence of the environment on human development. This fundamental question in human development has …

Quantum Modeling & Experimental Studies Of Radical Chemistry, Justin Michael Barrett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work describes two projects centered around radical chemical mechanisms. The first investigation generalized the utility of a C-N bond homolysis followed by a [1,3] – rearrangement synthetic strategy found possible in N-alkylated thiazole & benzothiazole species onto analogous systems. Computational investigation guided the inquiry on structurally analogous systems that would favor a radical, [1,3] – rearrangement. Herein, we describe the implementation of that mechanism to transform Breslow Intermediate-like substrates into tertiary alcohol and amide products under facile conditions. We confer on the proficiency of this strategy with 2-pyridinemethanol and the problematic implementation with 2-(aminomethyl)pyridine. The second investigation solved a …

Controls On The Development Of Hummocky Topography On Debris-Covered Glaciers, Ryan M. Strickland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rock debris covers many glaciers in Earth’s highest mountains and the debris impacts glacier response to changes in climate. Interactions between debris, drainage, glacier dynamics, and climate produce contrasts in melt rates that cause debris-covered glaciers to develop complex, hummocky topography. Contrasts in melt rate produce thousands of hills–hummocks–and depressions. Ponds and ice cliffs often form in the depressions. Although ponds and ice cliffs occupy only a small fraction of the surface, they account for nearly half of glacier melt. Understanding the processes that control the development of hummocky topography is key to predicting the evolution of debris-covered glaciers. In …

Online Course Development With University Extension And Industry Experts, Kelsey L. Mccullough

Applied Science Program: Theses

Project Background

While pursuing my college degrees, the highest impact classes have been filled with applications that I understood as being relevant at the time and have used within my career, had hands-on experiences, and included influential interactions with professionals. Taking this idea forward to course development as an online instructor, I know that creating and adapting college classes to be centered on key aspects of the agricultural industry will add to the education quality of the program and the college experience. This paper will describe my first attempt at this model of partnering with academic and industry experts to …

Measuring Listening Effort In Bilingual Listeners For Speech Perception In Noise, Sita Carraturo

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Noise is a common impedance to easy and accurate speech understanding. In the presence of noise, speech processing mechanisms proceed with partial or ambiguous inputs, and listeners will engage additional cognitive resources to make sense of what they hear. The extent to which this is situation is affected by diminished exposure to a language is an understudied question, but one that is relevant to bilingual listeners. By virtue of using two or more languages, bilinguals have less exposure to any one language than monolinguals of that language do. This, in turn, may make language processing more effortful for them, particularly …

Experimental Investigations Of Elemental And Isotopic Partitioning With Applications To Geochronology, Lunar Crust, And Meteorite Erg Chech 002, Yuanyuan Liang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Elemental partitioning and crystallization processes on the Earth, Moon, and the meteorite Erg Chech 002 parent body are explored in this thesis, highlighting different mineral assemblage crystallization histories in three distinct geologic environments: the Earth's crust, the Moon's mantle, and the Erg Chech 002 (EC 002) parent body. Multiple series of one-atmosphere zircon synthesizing experiments, using basaltic andesite, andesite, and rhyolite starting materials, have been conducted (Chapter 2) to study the U/Th partitioning behavior between zircon and melt. The results reveal that sector zoning, fractional crystallization, typical igneous oxygen fugacities, and melt composition, particularly the whole rock silica content and …

Studies On Molecular And Morphological Evolution And Biogeography Of Squids, Abigail M. Pratt

Dissertations

The cephalopod clade Decapodiformes consists of Spirulida (ram’s horn squid), Sepiolida (bobtail squids), Sepiida (cuttlefishes), Myopsida (inshore squids), and Oegopsida (oceanic squids). While many unanswered questions remain regarding this clade, a thorough examination requires a multi-level taxonomic approach due to uneven data coverage within. This dissertation explores a diverse set of topics in decapodiform evolution and biogeography with a hierarchical approach, starting with the “superorder” Decapodiformes, moving to the “order” Oegopsida, and finally zooming in to the family level with Pyroteuthidae. addressing four main questions: 1) Does RNA editing affect the use of transcriptomics in cephalopod phylogenetics? 2) What is …

Microbial Transfer And Cross-Contamination In Milling Facilities And Pathogen Survival In Milled Products And Baking Mixes, Aryany Leticia Peña-Gomez

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Wheat-based products, traditionally considered low-risk due to their low moisture content, have been involved in numerous foodborne outbreaks in recent decades. Salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) present in these products have caused significant numbers of hospitalizations and massive product recalls. The microbiological quality of flour is highly dependent on the incoming wheat, which is vulnerable to contamination from field to milling. Once pathogens are present in flour, they can survive for extended periods. Implementing strategies to mitigate the risk of pathogen contamination throughout the wheat processing chain is critical.

This study evaluated the distribution of E. coli …

The Effect Of Fat Content On The Inactivation And Recovery Of Listeria Spp. In Ready-To-Eat Foods After High Pressure Processing, Yhuliana Kattalina Niño Fuerte

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

High-pressure processing (HPP) is recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) as a post-lethality treatment to control Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products. A scoping review of 603 journal articles, which ultimately was narrowed down to 16 articles, revealed that the efficacy of HPP varies with fat content. The studies demonstrated that L. monocytogenes inactivation by HPP tends to be lower in RTE meats with greater than 5% fat content, compared to products with lower than 5% fat. The wide range of HPP parameters used in these studies …

Solving Long-Run Average Reward Robust Mdps Via Stochastic Games, Krishnendu Chatterjee, Ehsan Kafshdar Goharshady, Mehrdad Karrabi, Petr Novotný, Dorde Zikelic

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Markov decision processes (MDPs) provide a standard framework for sequential decision making under uncertainty. However, MDPs do not take uncertainty in transition probabilities into account. Robust Markov decision processes (RMDPs) address this shortcoming of MDPs by assigning to each transition an uncertainty set rather than a single probability value. In this work, we consider polytopic RMDPs in which all uncertainty sets are polytopes and study the problem of solving long-run average reward polytopic RMDPs. We present a novel perspective on this problem and show that it can be reduced to solving long-run average reward turn-based stochastic games with finite state …

Task Scheduling Strategy For 3dpcp Considering Multidynamic Information Perturbation In Green Scene, Jianjia He, Jian Wu, Keng Siau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The 3D printing cloud platform (3DPCP) plays a pivotal role in breaking down the information silos between supply and demand, effectively reducing waste through information integration and intelligent production. However, due to the complexity of 3DPCP scheduling in green scenes and the multidynamic information perturbations, unveils problems in traditional task scheduling methods in 3DPCP. These issues manifest as incomplete considerations, subpar green performance, and weak adaptability to dynamic changes. There is an urgent need to design practical methods to realize the multidynamic information perturbations in green scenes within 3DPCP. Therefore, this article first defines the 3DPCP task scheduling problem for …

Optimization Of Customer Service And Driver Dispatch Areas For On-Demand Food Delivery, Jingfeng Yang, Hoong Chuin Lau, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the rapid development and popularization of mobile and wireless communication technologies, on-demand food delivery (OFD) platforms have been able to connect restaurants, customers, and drivers in real time, drastically changing dining and food delivery services. Motivated by the critical need for supply and demand management in the on-demand food delivery market, we focus on the optimization of customer service area and driver dispatch area for on-demand food delivery services. Specifically, for each restaurant, the platform needs to decide the (1) customer service area (CSA), i.e., the surrounding area within which customers can see the restaurant’s information and order food …

Sibo : A Simple Booster For Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning, Zhihao Wen, Jie Zhang, Yuan Fang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Fine-tuning all parameters of large language models (LLMs) necessitates substantial computational power and extended time. Latest advancements in parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) techniques, such as Adapter tuning and LoRA, allow for adjustments to only a minor fraction of the parameters of these LLMs. Concurrently, it has been noted that the issue of over-smoothing diminishes the effectiveness of these Transformer-based LLMs, resulting in suboptimal performances in downstream tasks. In this paper, we present SIBO, which is a SImple BOoster to enhance PEFT, by injecting an initial residual. SIBO is straightforward and readily extensible to a range of state-of-the-art PEFT techniques to alleviate …

Tackling Stackelberg Network Interdiction Against A Boundedly Rational Adversary, Tien Mai, Avinandan Bose, Arunesh Sinha, Thanh Nguyen, Ayushman Kumar Singh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This work studies Stackelberg network interdiction games --- an important class of games in which a defender first allocates (randomized) defense resources to a set of critical nodes on a graph while an adversary chooses its path to attack these nodes accordingly. We consider a boundedly rational adversary in which the adversary's response model is based on a dynamic form of classic logit-based (quantal response) discrete choice models. The resulting optimization is non-convex and additionally, involves complex terms that sum over exponentially many paths. We tackle these computational challenges by presenting new efficient algorithms with solution guarantees. First, we present …

A Survey On Neural Question Generation : Methods, Applications, And Prospects, Shasha Guo, Lizi Liao, Cuiping Li, Tat-Seng Chua

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this survey, we present a detailed examination of the advancements in Neural Question Generation (NQG), a field leveraging neural network techniques to generate relevant questions from diverse inputs like knowledge bases, texts, and images. The survey begins with an overview of NQG’s background, encompassing the task’s problem formulation, prevalent benchmark datasets, established evaluation metrics, and notable applications. It then methodically classifies NQG approaches into three predominant categories: structured NQG, which utilizes organized data sources, unstructured NQG, focusing on more loosely structured inputs like texts or visual content, and hybrid NQG, drawing on diverse input modalities. This classification is followed …

Towards Gradient-Based Time-Series Explanations Through A Spatiotemporal Attention Network, Min Hun Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we explore the feasibility of using a transformer-based, spatiotemporal attention network (STAN) for gradient-based time-series explanations. First, we trained the STAN model for video classifications using the global and local views of data and weakly supervised labels on time-series data (i.e. the type of an activity). We then leveraged a gradient-based XAI technique (e.g. saliency map) to identify salient frames of time-series data. According to the experiments using the datasets of four medically relevant activities, the STAN model demonstrated its potential to identify important frames of videos.

Value-Based Subgoal Discovery And Path Planning For Reaching Long-Horizon Goals, Shubham Pateria, Budhitama Subagdja, Ah-Hwee Tan, Chai Quek

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Learning to reach long-horizon goals in spatial traversal tasks is a significant challenge for autonomous agents. Recent subgoal graph-based planning methods address this challenge by decomposing a goal into a sequence of shorter-horizon subgoals. These methods, however, use arbitrary heuristics for sampling or discovering subgoals, which may not conform to the cumulative reward distribution. Moreover, they are prone to learning erroneous connections (edges) between subgoals, especially those lying across obstacles. To address these issues, this article proposes a novel subgoal graph-based planning method called learning subgoal graph using value-based subgoal discovery and automatic pruning (LSGVP). The proposed method uses a …

Larp: Language Audio Relational Pre‑Training For Cold‑Start Playlist Continuation, Rebecca Salganik, Xiaohao Liu, Yunshan Ma, Jian Kang, Tat‑Seng Chua

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As online music consumption increasingly shifts towards playlist-based listening, the task of playlist continuation, in which an algorithm suggests songs to extend a playlist in a personalized and musically cohesive manner, has become vital to the success of music streaming services. Currently, many existing playlist continuation approaches rely on collaborative filtering methods to perform their recommendations. However, such methods will struggle to recommend songs that lack interaction data, an issue known as the cold-start problem. Current approaches to this challenge design complex mechanisms for extracting relational signals from sparse collaborative signals and integrating them into content representations. However, these approaches …

Path-Choice-Constrained Bus Bridging Design Under Urban Rail Transit Disruptions, Yiyang Zhu, Jian Gang Jin, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Although urban rail transit systems play a crucial role in urban mobility, they frequently suffer from unexpected disruptions due to power loss, severe weather, equipment failure, and other factors that cause significant disruptions in passenger travel and, in turn, socioeconomic losses. To alleviate the inconvenience of affected passengers, bus bridging services are often provided when rail service has been suspended. Prior research has yielded various methodologies for effective bus bridging services; however, they are mainly based on the strong assumption that passengers must follow predetermined bus bridging routes. Less attention is paid to passengers’ path choice behaviors, which could affect …